Outside of the aerospace and defense industries, mining is arguably the most capital-intensive business in the world.
You have to move a lot of earth to get at the mineral-bearing ore, and this requires complex structures, equipment, vehicles and heavy...
Supply and demand: we all know how this works. If there’s too much of something (whether bricks, maize or tomatoes), there’s a glut and the price goes down – because the product is so easy to get that people...
To commit a billion dollars or more to a venture which might only show a return on investment 10 years from now is a tough decision which prompts tough questions:
How great is the mineral deposit?
Once exploration has found a mineral deposit worth...
The rewards in mining can be high, but so is the risk. Starting a new mining venture is a long and arduous journey, and there are many reasons why it could fail.
"It takes an average of 12 years between...
An easily understood feature of corporate taxation is that you only tax a business once it is making a profit. But what do you do if it takes several years before the business makes a profit?
It easily takes 7-10...
Step 1
Ore is taken out of the ground
Holes are drilled in the ground (if it’s an open-pit mine) or in the rock-face (if it’s an underground mine), and explosives are placed in them to blast it open. The resulting...
1. It is one of the world’s biggest producers of diamonds
In 2017, Sierra Leone produced nearly 450 000 carats of diamonds, making it the world’s eighth-biggest producer. Other minerals mined in Sierra Leone include gold, rutile, iron ore, and...
Liberia is Africa’s oldest independent republic
The American Colonization Society founded Liberia as a haven for freed slaves who wanted to return to Africa. Around 10,000 men, women and children made their way across the Atlantic between 1821...
1. It is a by-product of copper mining
You can’t mine cobalt; you can only get it as a by-product of copper mining. So, where there’s copper, there’s cobalt. The Copperbelt, which runs through the Central African Republic, the Democratic...
Smelting is an extremely important part of the overall mining process, facilitating the extraction of all kinds of metals – including silver, and base metals like iron and copper – from their ores. But how much do you really...
